EthTRX, an app-based Tron investment scheme, collapsed by July 22, 2022, ceasing operations after promising investors daily returns of up to 10% on their cryptocurrency deposits. The platform, whose domain "ether-trx.com" was privately registered on February 26, 2022, offered high-yield investment tiers without verifiable external revenue.
Visitors to the EthTRX website initially saw an empty backoffice for a few seconds. A message then popped up, stating "please logged on," before the site redirected users to an affiliate login and signup form. Upon logging in as an affiliate, EthTRX provided a link to a Google Store application. However, manual attempts to access this app link consistently returned a "not found" error. The platform also presented a whitepaper link, which proved to be Tron's official document, bearing no specific relevance to EthTRX's purported operations.
EthTRX operated without any retailable products or services. Its business model relied solely on affiliates marketing EthTRX affiliate memberships, drawing new investors into the scheme. This structure is a hallmark of pyramid or Ponzi operations, where the product itself is the recruitment of others.
The compensation plan required affiliates to invest Tron (TRX) cryptocurrency. Returns were promised at a daily rate of 5% to 10%, tiered by investment amount. For example, VIP1 members investing up to 29,999.99 TRX were offered 5% daily returns, with withdrawals capped at 2.8% of their backoffice balance each day. Higher tiers, such as SVIP, demanded investments between 10 million and 99.9 billion TRX, promising 10% daily returns and withdrawal caps at 5% of the balance.
EthTRX also paid referral commissions across three levels of recruitment. Personally recruited affiliates, or Level 1, earned their referrer 12% of their investment. Level 2 recruitment paid 5%, and Level 3 paid 2%. While affiliate membership appeared free, full participation in the income opportunity mandated an investment in Tron.
The platform claimed to generate external revenue through cryptocurrency mining. No evidence or documentation supported these mining operations or demonstrated how such revenue might fund the promised withdrawals. Without verifiable external income, the only source of funds for paying existing investors was new investment from later participants. This characteristic defines a Ponzi scheme.
Traffic analysis by SimilarWeb showed EthTRX's website attracting users primarily from Ethiopia (37%), Indonesia (13%), and Ukraine (10%). These regions frequently become targets for high-yield investment schemes due to varying levels of regulatory oversight and economic conditions.
Such MLM Ponzi schemes typically collapse once affiliate recruitment slows. When the inflow of new investment dries up, the scheme can no longer meet its promised daily ROI withdrawals. This financial starvation ultimately prompts the platform's failure. The recent proliferation of "VIP" crypto app-based schemes suggests a coordinated effort by scammers, likely operating from Southeast Asia, to replicate this model across different platforms.
The collapse of EthTRX followed reports of non-payment from investors. By July 22, 2022, the EthTRX website had gone offline, confirming its operational cessation and the loss of investor funds. Victims of similar cryptocurrency investment scams can report incidents to their national financial regulators or law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in the United States.